NEW YORK—Deloitte and Sinclair Broadcast Group have announced that they plan to launch a new metaverse sports fan community experience that will leverage Epic Games' Unreal Engine to explore the future of gameplay and the fan experience through the metaverse.
The community will launch the week of March 6th.
The fandom community was built by Deloitte's Unlimited Reality practice, which brings together 3D computing, artificial intelligence, Web3.0, immersive experiences and advanced connectivity to help clients create business value. The community makes use of Epic's Unreal Engine — a powerful 3D creation tool that brings robust experiences to life in real time.
Sinclair is billing the partnership as an important next step in Sinclair's plans to deepen engagement with its viewing community, drive new revenue streams through experiential gaming and help redefine sports viewership and experiences through the metaverse.
The community is designed to build on the new ways fans are consuming sports-related content, as well as the desire from fans for more immersive content and greater engagement with teams, Sinclair said.
It is also designed to engage fans beyond simply viewing of live games, providing a metaverse experience to engage fans during post-season, pre-game, post-game and eventually, during the game.
"By bringing together Sinclair's vision of virtual metaverse engagement with Deloitte's deep client and sports industry knowledge, metaverse know-how and break-through solutions and ecosystem partnership, we plan to deliver an enhanced fan experience that caters to the unique communities we serve," said JR McCabe, chief business officer, Consumer Products, Sinclair Broadcast Group.
"In Deloitte's recently published '2023 Sports Industry Outlook', it is clear the blending of physical and virtual worlds is accelerating in the industry, providing fans with more ways to access and consume sports content than ever before," said Dan Helfrich, chair and chief executive officer of Deloitte Consulting LLP. "We are excited about the opportunity to team with Sinclair Broadcast Group to augment the viewing experience by harnessing the power of virtual worlds for broader community accessibility and deeper fan engagement."
Learn more about Sinclair's virtual community here.
